trot1

(of a horse) to go at a gait between a walk and a run, in which the legs move in diagonal pairs, but not quite simultaneously, so that when the movement is slow one foot at least is always on the ground, and when fast all four feet are momentarily off the ground at once.

trot

n.

c.1300, from Old French trot (12c.), from troter "to trot, to go," from Frankish *trotton (cf. Old High German trotton "to tread"), from a variant of the Germanic base of tread (v.). The trots "diarrhea" is recorded from 1808 (cf. the runs).

trot

v.

late 14c., from Old French troter "to trot, to go," from Frankish *trotton (see trot (n.). Italian trottare, Spanish trotar also are borrowed from Germanic. To trot (something) out originally (1838) was in reference to horses; figurative sense of "produce and display for admiration" is slang first recorded 1845. Related: Trotted; trotting.